Tic-Tac-Toe is a basic board or handwritten game for two players. It is a simple, completing-the-squares type game played out on a flat, single plane, rectangular diagram of nine places or squares with three squares to each side. The nine squares are usually laid out with cross hatched lines on a flat sheet of paper or board. The object of the game is for a player to claim three of the squares in a row either horizontally, transversely or diagonally on the board in order to win the game. The players take alternate turns claiming the squares by marking or placing pieces on squares of the diagram until one player claims three squares in a row or the game ends in a tie.
Once the basics of this simple game have been mastered by both players, a typical game of tic-tac-toe usually ends in a tie or draw with neither player winning. In order to make the game more challenging, various attempts have been made to utilize a three-dimensional (3D) large cube or rectangular block as the playing framework. The block is organized like a two-dimensional game but has three tiers or levels. Thus, the block includes twenty-seven places or cube spaces as opposed to the nine flat squares in a typical two-dimensional game. These three-dimensional games may be provided on a computer-generated image or in a physical three-dimensional framework or lattice. In this type of three-dimensional game of tic-tac-toe, the players still take turns claiming “squares or places”, in the form of the cube spaces within the twenty-seven place block, but can claim them anywhere within the three tiers of the block to still get three squares in a row in any direction to win. In this three-dimensional tic-tac-toe game, the three pieces can be aligned in horizontal, transverse or diagonal direction, like in the two dimensional game, but also in a vertical direction or any combination thereof to win.
Because the playing framework is rather complicated, the ability to see or ascertain exactly where each playing piece or mark lies within the block may be obstructed by other playing pieces or marks or the framework structure itself. Thus, since some cube spaces may be hidden inside, it may be difficult to see if a player has established or claimed three cubes in a row to win. Further, it is sometimes difficult during the fast play of the game to determine if any one player has already established three pieces or cube spaces in a row before the other player takes his turn.
Accordingly, there is an established need for a three-dimensional tic-tac-toe game structure that provides an immediate and positive indication when a player has established three spaces in a row to win the game. There is also, more particularly, a need for a three-dimensional tic-tac-toe game that can give a visual and/or auditory indication of a win.